HC Deb 29 April 1980 vol 983 cc447-8W
Mr. Wellbeloved

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will publish a chart indicating expenditure per head of population on the health services for each area within the Greater London Council for each of the past three years.

Dr. Vaughan

As indicated in my right hon. Friend's reply to the hon. Member for Tottenham (Mr. Atkinson) on 18 February—[Vol. 979, c.93–4.]—the provision of such information as can be derived from the annual accounts submitted by health authorities is subject to the acceptability of the cost of extracting and presenting it in the required form. Compilation of a chart in the form requested would involve disproportionate cost but the information for 1978–79, the latest year for which accounts are available, has been calculated as follows and is subject to the reservations indicated in the notes below.

NHS EXPENDITURE PER HEAD OF POPULATIN FOR AREAS WITHIN THE GREATER LONDON COUNCIL, 1978–79
Area Health Authority £
Barnet 152
Brent and Harrow 133
Ealing, Hammersmith and Hounslow (T) 150
Hillingdon 152
Kensington, Chelsea and West-minster (T) 305
Barking and Havering 118
Camden and Islington (T) 277
City and East London (T) 202
Enfield and Haringey 111
Redbridge and Waltham Forest 142
Greenwich and Bexley 151
Bromley 126
Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham(T) 211
Croydon 124
Kingston and Richmond 117
Merton, Sutton and Wandsworth(T) 188

NOTES

1, "T" denotes an area health authority (Teaching) and the relative expenditure figures are influenced by additional expenditure on the provision of facilities for the clinical teaching of medical and dental students.

2. Expenditure figures used have been taken from the annual accounts of the health authorities concerned. Capital expenditure included in the accounts of the four Thames regional health authorities which is identified as appropriate to specified areas has been included in the expenditure per head of the population of those areas.

Other regional expenditure not so included amounts to an average of £4.00 per head of the population of the regions as a whole.

3. Brent and Harrow area health authority provides family practitioner services for four other areas in addition to its own population. Estimates for family practitioner services expenditure calculated on the relevant proportions of the total population involved have been included in the figures for the areas concerned, namely, Brent and Harrow; Barnet; Ealing, Hammersmith and Hounslow (T); Hillingdon; and Enfield and Haringey.

4. The population figures used are the mid year estimates of resident populations within each area which make no allowance for people living in one area who receive treatment in another, or for the differences in morbidity and age/sex structure of particular populations.